Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji - a geologist turned social entrepreneur

Involve Now is intended to showcase the activities of NGOs, social entrepreneurs, activists and all community organisers that are contributing in no small measures toward helping Nigeria find the way.

In this showcase, we bring to you Mr Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji, a geologist turned social entrepreneurs.

Who is Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji?

Joachim Ezeji is the Chief Executive Officer of Rural Africa Water Development Project (RAWDP) which he founded in 2000 as an intervention NGO with the aim to improve access to clean drinking water in remote rural communities in Nigeria where access to clean water is severely constrained, particularly those that have been ravaged by oil and gas exploration activities. Read more

A Nigerian NGO and its good works. (Part 3)

With the vastness of the Niger Delta — 187 local government areas, more than 40 different ethnic groups and 250 languages and dialects among them, about 28 million peoples, 12 per cent of Nigeria’s surface area, 13,329 settlements, with only 98 being urban centres, long coastlines and environments that are devastated; you will no doubt agree with RAWDP that to accomplish its mission is a huge challenge.

RAWDP is presently working in only 7 communities out of over 5,000 located in only 7 local government areas out of 187. This is really not enough hence underscoring the imperativeness of training and empowering the trainees and the communities to expand the water filter production within a record time.

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A Nigerian NGO and its good works. (Part 2)

In the NGO, Rural Africa Water Development Project (RAWDP), a baseline assessment/survey is often the first step towards a water, sanitation and hygiene improvement programme. It provides RAWDP a means of assessing the existing water and sanitation as well as the Hygiene situation of the target communities, and to understand why people do what they do and why the status quo subsists.

To make the assessment effective RAWDP uses suitable methods to investigate the existing situation within the community. Baseline information enable it to; Prioritize communities, or identify target audiences within a particular community for the promotion of its programmes; Providing the baseline for planning and measuring the success of the intervention .i.e. it need to know the proportion of people using each risky practice before its programme starts, so at a later stage it can measure this again to see if there has been a reduction; identifying the issues to be addressed, and the resources available or required for resolving them, and understanding the water and sanitation situation of a community and the issues surrounding those practices.

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A Nigerian NGO and its good works (Part 1)

Rural Africa Water Development Project (RAWDP), a Nigerian NGO, is currently promoting the Mor-sand filter in the restive oil rich Niger Delta region. The Mor-sand Filter, an improved adaptation of the slow-sand filter, integrates the combination of coagulation and filtration as effective processes significant in the reduction of the concentration of microorganisms in water. It markedly differs from the ordinary slow-sand filter by its adoption of a Moringa oleifera seed paste layer. This layer offers coagulation, a traditional first unit process in conventional water treatment that is crucial for the removal of impurities in water.

The Filter offers the average household in Nigeria an affordable Point of Use water filter that is rugged in an impoverished economy. Its construction is completed using local materials and labour, contributing to local economies. The technology is simple to use, and does not require major changes in water use habits to be effective. The project was funded by the World Bank Development Marketplace, and aims to assist households in oil producing communities to maximize the quality of their drinking water supply and free them from the burdens of ill-health caused by human and industrial pollution.

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